BitScope and friends at OzBerryPi Maker Space

We've since written up an overview Bruce Tulloch's talk in a separate post but what we've got here is our impression of Sydney's OzBerryPi and the other terrific presentations.

OzBerryPi members hack on the RaspberryPi, Arduino, MCUs and Linux so they're an ideal audience for what we do here at BitScope.

They come from a diverse range of professional backgrounds and ages but they all share a passion for hardware hacking, sharing ideas and learning about how to actually make their own stuff. We like it!

In addition to our talk we heard from Ian Lyons from MakerDrone who gave a fascinating talk about the fast changing world of multi-rotor drones.

He gave us an good overview of the explosive growth in drone technology and showed how open hardware and shared design has made this new field of engineering possible.

He contrasted the timeline for the evolution of computing technology over the past 30 years with that of new generation drone technology which has occured about ten times faster and he gave a convincing argument that shared design and open source hardware like Arduino were the major reasons.

We also heard from Stanley Huang the author or MediaCoder who described his new Freematics Project designed to make it possible, accessible and affordable for anyone to carry out vehicle telematics using open hardware.

Stanley from ArduinoDev speaking about Freematics.

Stanley outlined the development of his OBD-II compatible Arduino based data logging system for vehicles with the aim being to make vehicle telematics available at low cost and with compatiblilty for almost any vehicle manufactured since 2006.

Again the theme was how this has been made possible with the advent of open hardware like Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Stanley showed a custom shield he's designed and a heads up display from his project.

A lively discussion ensued about all the possible applications for this technology and how some hardware hacking can lead to some interesting projects and products.

We also saw demonstrations of Oculus Rift courtesy of Aladar Apponyi and his Oculus Rift Kit.

Andrew trying to avoid motion sickness with Oculus Rift.

It's an impressive piece of kit but it can take a little getting used to for some of us with tendency for motion sickness!

We were treated to a practical tutorial by Ross Mitchell on the basics of successul soldering and throughout the afternoon there was a lot of free form hacking going on.

We had some very interesting chats with others about the state of STEM Education in Australia and elsewhere around the world, what needs to be done about it and what contributions makers, hackers and other interested in the field can make.

However, at the end of the day the highlight for us was meeting such a great bunch of people in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere who share our passion for learning, solving real problems and actually making things! So, if you're in Sydney and you're into Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Linux, hardware hacking, or just learning new things, you owe it to yourself to join Sydney's Open Source Hardware Maker Space, OzBerryPi!